Small State Studies

In the power politics of strategic manoeuvring and counter balancing in the Indian Ocean region, smaller states attract the attention of all the major powers and are subjected to external pressure. Maldives, though a small state with limited resources and diplomatic clout, plays a vital role in the regional geostrategic dynamics mainly based on its geographic location. By examining the foreign policy of the Maldives, this study provides insight into the country’s relations with India and China, and attempts to display its political autonomy amid the strategic manoeuvring in the Indian Ocean by the two big states. This study documents the changes in the Maldives’ foreign policy during all its presidencies, from independence till 2015, by taking it as a synchronic case study that could be a useful resource for other small states in articulating foreign policies. By applying Rosenau’s explanatory factors of foreign policy and Knudsen’s variables for maintaining small state autonomy, this study establishes that the Maldives’ exploitation of alliance strategy compounds its insecurities. It also raises concerns for the Maldives’ external behaviour, as the political leadership could be eliciting a higher-than-anticipated cost through a compelled revision of interests. Against this backdrop, this study outlines behavioural and policy changes the Maldives can adopt to mitigate its insecurities, and safeguard its interests and autonomy.

The article addresses Lithuania’s foreign policy vis-à-vis the Eastern Partnership programme in 2009–2014 from the perspective of small states’ abilities to influence decision- making processes within the European Union. The author aims at revealing the puzzle of Lithuania’s marginal capacities of absolute power being disproportional to the output of its foreign policy towards implementation of the Eastern Partnership programme and hence utilising “smart state strategy” conceptualised by Anders Wivel. The novelty of the study rests on expansion of applying the smart state strategy towards the post-negotiation stage of the policy implementation. The article contributes to the debate over the applicability of the “smart state strategy” approach towards the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union, by arguing that Lithuania’s foreign policy vis-à-vis the Eastern Partnership programme in 2009–2014 does indeed serve as an example of such behaviour, however recognising Lithuania’s initial shift from utilising “small state policy” to “smart state strategy”.

Den här artikeln placerar frågan om svenskt NATO-medlemskap i ett historiskt och komparativt perspektiv. Den går tillbaka till åren innan NATO bildades och jämför säkerhetspolitiken i två länder som gjorde olika val i frågan, Sverige och Nederländerna. Trots att de dittills haft en mycket likartad neutralitetstradition, valde Nederländernas regering efter andra världskriget att alliera sig medan Sveriges regering valde alliansfrihet. Att Nederländerna blivit ockuperat medan Sverige lyckats hålla sig utanför andra världskriget är en iögonfallande skillnad, men inte en lika självklar orsak till skillnaden i säkerhetspolitik som man skulle kunna tro. Artikeln diskuterar bland annat vilka lärdomar den svenska och nederländska regeringen drog av sina respektive krigserfarenheter och hur dessa i samspel med de konkreta omständigheter man ställdes inför efter krigsslutet ledde till olika beslut angående allians/alliansfrihet. Genom en jämförelse av regeringarnas säkerhetspolitiska mål, motiv och strategier prövas de förklaringsmodeller som hittills har dominerat historieskrivningen. Bilden av allians och alliansfrihet som fundamentalt olika säkerhetsstrategier nyanseras genom att stora likheter i de två regeringarnas kamp för regional säkerhet och bevarat handlingsutrymme lyfts fram.

Armenia's foreign policy and security orientations have recently been in the spotlight. Armenia has been a strategic partner of Russia since the early days of independence in the early 1990s. It has been part of Russia-led integration and security projects – Commonwealth of Independence States (CIS) and Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). Simultaneously, Armenia and the EU signed Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in November 2017. How was Armenia able to find the compromise between its strategic ally – Russia, and its " normative ally " – the European Union? In contrast to the prevalent argument that the foreign policy choices and security alignments of small states are mostly determined by external and imposed factors, the paper argues that a set of equally significant domestic variables impact small states in making foreign policy decisions.

Se ha propuesto investigar sobre la industria privada de la seguridad en la ciudad de Asunción. El fundamento principal consistió en la enorme carencia de estudios que existe sobre el fenómeno y lo habitual que se ha convertido la figura del guardia privado dentro del paisaje urbano. Se concentró en indagar cualitativamente a seis (6) dueños de empresas pertenecientes a la Cámara Paraguaya de ×Trasporte de Valores y Seguridad Privada (CAPATRAVALSEP). Se preguntó sobre las tareas que realizan, el tipo de clientela que los contratan, sus propias impresiones sobre el fenómeno. El resultado más significativo ha sido que la seguridad privada se encuentra orientada hacia la prevención de pérdidas económicas de aquellas empresas que la contratan. Una nueva industria que actúa a través del “control de riesgos”, y satisface las necesidades empresariales de ésta época, dentro del vocablo anglosajón, este tipo de rol ha sido denominado como safety.

Palabras Claves: Seguridad, Privada, Rol, Safety, Control, Corporativismo.



This paper is proposed to investigate the role of the private management industry in the city of Asuncion. The thesis focused on qualitatively investigates six (6) owners of private security  companies belonging to the Paraguayan Chamber of Transport Securities and Private Security (CAPATRAVALSEP). He wondered about the tasks they perform, the type of clientele who hire them as well, their own particular views on the phenomenon. This based on the ultimate  aim of achieving describe the role, or social settings, in this industry within asuncena reality  from the perspective of the social sciences. The most significant result has been that the private security industry is oriented towards preventing economic losses of those companies that hire them. A new industry that acts through capitalist rationality, "risk control", and meet  new business needs or corporate this time, in the Anglo-Saxon word, such a role is termed as safety.

Keywords: Security, Privacy, Role, Safety, Control, Corporatism.


Disponible en: Revista Paraguay desde las Ciencias Sociales

http://revista.grupoparaguay.org/index.php/revistaparaguay/issue/view/3

This article aims at identifying the characteristics of the foreign policy behaviour of small states, in particular, the main features and reasons for their peculiar behaviour in the international arena. The author analyses the main approaches to the definition of small states and argues the scientific preference for the use of one of the varieties of an integrated approach. Based on the results of previous studies, he describes the main common features of the foreign policy behaviour of small states, but a reservation is made that the manifestation of these features in practice is situational and contextual. It is concluded that the reasons for the described signs of a peculiar foreign policy behaviour of small states is a combination of a regional security complex and its order, economic development and foreign policy identity of each particular small state, in which the type of regional security complex is crucial.

Key words։ small state, great power, foreign policy, foreign policy behaviour, regional security complex, regional security order

The Cold War is conventionally regarded as a superpower confl ict that dominated the shape of international relations between World War II and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Smaller powers had to adapt to a role as pawns in a strategic game of the superpowers, its course beyond their control. This edited volume off ers a fresh interpretation of twentieth-century smaller European powers – East–West, neutral and non-aligned – and argues that their position vis-à-vis the superpowers often provided them with an opportunity rather than merely representing a constraint. Analysing the margins for manoeuvre of these smaller powers, the volume covers a wide array of themes, ranging from cultural to economic issues, energy to diplomacy and Bulgaria to Belgium. Given its holistic and nuanced intervention in studies of the Cold War, this book will be instrumental for students of history, international relations and political science.